Bundler and discharge assembly for wire products machines



July 4,j 1944.. G. K. GAUMER BUNDLER AND DISCHARGE ASSEMBLY FOR WIRE PRODUCTS MACHINES Original" Filed Aug. so, 1943 Patented July 4, 1944 WIRE PR IODUCTS' MACHINES George K. Gaumer, Sterling, Ill., assignor :t'o

Northwestern Steel and Wire- Company,

7 Sterling, 111., a corporation-of Illinois Originalapplication August 30, 1940, Serial No, 354,784; Divided and this application June 9, 1943, SerialNo. 490,183

3 Claims. (01. 10041) This invention relates to mechanisms for automatically collecting, tying together, and discharging wires or strip products'made on awirefabricating machine.

Specifically, the invention relates to an improved" Wrapping strand feeding and cutting mechanism. for a b'ale tie machine.

This application is a division of my copending application entitled: Counter assembly for wire products machine, Serial No. 354,784, filed August 30, 1940.

While the invention will hereinafter be specifically described in connection with a machine for making bale ties, itshould be understood that the invention is, in general, adapted for the automatic collecting, tying together, and discharging of a large variety of products, particularly elongated strands or strips such as, for example, wires, ribbons, rods and the like.

In thehigh-speedfabricatlon of wire products such as-bale'ties, it is highly desirable thatthe fabricating machine discharge finished products in bundles.

bundles be entirely automatic, in order that. one operator can look aftera number of machines.

- Heretofore bal tie machines merely discharged the'finished bale ties onto a collecting platform, and it was necessary to manually count, bundle together, and move the counted and bundledtogether bale ties to another machine which applieda commercial wrapping around a desired" number of bundles. The manual sorting out and bundling of the long bale ties was awkward, timeconsuming and expensive.

The present invention eliminates this manual effort and the bale tie machinedischarges bundled' bale ties. his, then, merely necessary to move any desired number of the bundles into the final wrapping machine if the bundle is to be further wrapped.

It is, then, an object of this invention to provide apparatus for automatically bundling and dis charging bundled wire products.

A further object of the invention-is to provide'a Wire product machine with mechanism for automatically tying together a plurality of products fabricated by the machine.

A still further object of the invention is to provide attachments for a bale tie machine for converting the machine to deliver bundles of bale ties instead of single bale ties.

A specific object of the invention is to provide a cutting and wrapping strand-feeding mechanism for a wire products fabricating machine.

It is also highly desirable that the collecting, bundling-together, and discharging'of chin in spaced relation from theend of the shaft I3 and carries a U-shaped wrapping" finger l5 on'the endthereof adapted'to' clear the looped" endsof thebale ties B. T. Theright-hand'endof the finger 15 carries a wrapp ng pin lti for acting on .awrapping wire, or strandi! in aman-J of'Figure' 1,

' Other and further objects of the invention will be apparent/to those skilled in the art from the following description of the'attached sheet of drawings which, by way of preferred example only, illustrates one embodiment of the invention.

On the' drawing:

Figure 1 is a broken, fragmentary, topplan view 7 of a' portion of a bale tie machine illustrating the bundlingand discharge assembly of this invention.

Figure 2"is abroken, fragmentary front elevational view'of the assembly shown in- Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view, with parts in elevation, taken along the line IIIIII- illustrating the assembly in bundling" position.

Figure 4 is a view similar to FigureS illustrating the assembly in" discharge position.

Figured is a side elevationalview-of a bundle of hal ties" produced by theassembly of Figures" I As" shownon the drawing:

ln Figure's 1 to 4 the referencenumeral l 0 indi cates generally a portionv of a bale tie making machine including a frame member in the form of an angle beam. having a top'horizontal leg and afront vertical leg; Guide brackets H are mounted on the vertical leg of 'the'frame F and cooperate with guide'rods Ila to guidebale tiessuch'as B; T. from the machine llltofall-by'grav ity intocollect'or arms l'z 'mounted on a shaft 13* of the machine.

A: wrapping" shaft" l l'is provided on the maner'tobe more fully hereinafter described.

The collector arms shaft I B'has a disk' IB'secured" thereon by means' of a locking pin "I9 directly'in front of thewrapping'pin 6. The-disk M 8 will the'refore rotate with the shaft l3; The

disk !8 has a cam surface l8a thereon defininga cuttin shoulderZl! onthe periphery of the disk:

A disk 2l'is100sely'm0unted on the shaft l3 to the right of the disk I8 and has a leg Zla projecting from. the periphery thereof. An adjustable stop bolt 22 is threaded inthe. leg Zla. and serves as an anchor for the end of a rawhide or other flexible material strip or strand 23. The other end of the rawhide strip 23 is anchored to a tension spring 24 which is carried by the frame of the machine and which serves to pull, 1

the floating disk 2| in a counter-clockwise direction to the position shown in Figure 3.

The floating disk 2| has a head portion 25 which overlaps the disk I8 as shown in Figure 2. This head portion 25 carries a cutter block 26 over the periphery of the disk I8. The cutter block 26 and head 25 define a segmental cylindrical recess 21 adapted to receive the bale ties therethrough. A guide II guides the ends of the bale ties into this recess 21.

A bracket 28 is bolted on the frame F and depends downwardly therefrom into adjoining relation with the disk 2|. formed on this bracket 28 for preventing retraction of the head 25 beyond the, position shown in Figure 3 and for acting on the stop bolt 22 as shown in Figure 4.

This bracket 28 also carries a tube 29 through 2 An abutment 28a is' pended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. Ina wire products fabricating machine, a wire products collecting and dumping mechanism, a cutter movable with said mechanism, a member floatingly mounted adjacent said cutter and having a head portion overlapping the cutter which the wrapping wire I1 is fed from a spool or other suitable source (not shown) mounted on the machine. The Wrapping .wire I1 is initially guided over the cutting portion of the driven disk I8 and is directed by a cam face a on the side of the head 25 into the path of the wrapping pin I6 as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

When a predetermined number of bale ties B. T. have been collected in the collector arms I2, the shaft I3 is rotated to move the collector arms I2 from the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 3 to the position shown in solid lines. This causes the collector arms to cooperate with the recess 21 of the head 25 and cutter block 26 to form the bale ties into a round bundle. In the meantime, the shaft I4 is rotated to spin the wrapping pin I6 through two complete revolutions to wrap the leading end of the wire I1 around the bale ties B. T. Rotation of the shaft I3 is then reversed to drive the disk I8 in a clockwise direction. The disk I8 continues to rotate at a slower speed in the clockwise direction, and this causes the cutting shoulder 20 to clamp the wire I! againstthe cutting block 26 thus pulling the wire through the tube 29 and moving the floating disk 2| with the disk I8 against the tension of the spring 24.

The floatingdisk 2| continues to rotate with the-disk I 8until the stop bolt 22 strikes the abutment 28a as shown in Figure 4. Upon striking the abutment, the floating disk 2| is stopped, but the disk I8 continues to rotate for shearing off the wire between the cutting block 26 and the cutting shoulder 20 as shown in Figure 4. The wire therefore no longer is clamped between the disk I8 and the cutting head 25, and the spring 24 can therefore pull the disk 2| back into the position shown in Figure 3 with the head 25 abutting the top'portion of the abutment 28a. When this happens, however, suflicient wire has been pulled through the tube 29 to leave a leading end in the position shown in Figures 1 and for the next wrapping operation.

The severed wire has been wrapped around the bale ties as shown in Figure 4 for two complete revolutions, and the collector arms I2 have been movedto a dump position as also shown in Figure 4, so that the bale tie bundle 30 of Figure 5 can drop by gravity out of the machine.

adapted to wedge a strand of material between said cutter and said head portion to wrap the strand around the cutter upon movement of said collecting and dumping mechanism, a stop member for arresting movement of the floating member with the cutter after a predetermined amount of movement therewith to eflect severing of the wedged strand, and means for reversely rotating said floating member relative to the cutter to carry the head freely over a predetermined length of unsevered strand material for subsequent wedging against a new portion of the strand.

2. A wrapping strand feeding and cuttingamount of movement therewith to effectv severingof the wedged strand, and means for reversely rotating said floating member relative to the cutter and back over a predetermined length of unsevered strand material for subsequently wedg-= ing against a new portion of the strand.

3. A cutting and wrapping strand feeding mechanism for a bale tie machine which comprises a rotatable cutter, a member floatingly' mounted adjacent said cutter and having a head portion overlapping the cutter for wedging wrapping strand material against the cutter, means for rotating the cutter to pull the head of the floating member into wedging engagement with strand material disposed over the 'cutter for feeding the strand material around the cutter, a stop member for arresting movement of the floating member with the cutter to effect severing of the wedged strand, and means positively connected tosaid floating member for re turning the floating member to its starting posi tion for subsequent wedging' against the new portion of the strand.

GEORGE K. GAUNLER. 

